Howard Webb: I should have red-carded Holland's Nigel de Jong in the World Cup final

Howard Webb showed 14 cards in the World Cup final but now feels he should
have been even tougher. The Rotherham referee admits that the Dutch
midfielder, Nigel de Jong, should have been dismissed for his first-half
kung-fu kick on Spain’s Xabi Alonso.

Even now, Webb shakes his head in dismay at the memory of the ugly behaviour that stained an occasion that should have been a celebration of the Beautiful Game.

“We’d hoped for a festival of football between two technical teams,’’ Webb recalled. “On the day of the game we had several briefings from Fifa technical and psychological staff. We talked about the emotion, the styles of play, but no one said anything about it being the physical encounter it turned out to be.

“I know a lot of the players from the Premier League, the Champions League and from refereeing the national teams and they are sensible, reasonable people. But the emotions in that World Cup final were quite raw.

“I sensed in the tunnel how much both teams wanted to win it, having not won the World Cup before. I sensed the tension. Because of the expectation and the pressure to win, those emotions were released.’’

Fourteen were booked, including Johnny Heitinga twice. Robin van Persie and Carles Puyol were the first.

“After two good, solid cautions early on I thought it would settle down but it didn’t,’’ continued Webb, glancing at his assistants, Mike Mullarkey and Darren Cann, who flanked him as he talked at Eastlands before meeting Fifa’s 2018 inspection team. “I’ve been blessed that my career has coincided with Mike and Darren. The three of us were talking on the radio. 'This is not what we expected’, I said to them. 'Just keep doing your job’, they both said. 'You’ve no choice’.’’

Webb tried to reason with Fernando Torres and Van Persie, Dirk Kuyt and Gio van Bronckhorst. “I knew some of the more sensible players that I could ask for assistance. Even with those guys the sole desire was to win. The assistance wasn’t as forthcoming as I’d hoped for.’’

The names of Mark van Bommel and Sergio Ramos were soon entered in the ledger of shame. Then came De Jong.

Ever the perfectionist, Webb has since watched the game back with a fellow referee. “We agreed there’s not much about my performance we would change. I don’t have sleepless nights.’’

But he has two regrets, starting with De Jong. “I should have red-carded him. I knew it was a high foot, but I didn’t realise how bad it was until later. Van Bommel was to the right of Alonso so I didn’t have a good enough view at the time. It was a poor view and I wasn’t sure the extent of the contact from De Jong.

"Being a World Cup final I wasn’t prepared to make a guess. It’s the pinnacle of a player’s career. But the colour of the card should have been red.’’

If De Jong was fortunate to survive, the Dutch were incensed by Webb’s booking of Van Bronckhorst, Heitinga twice, Robben, Gregory van der Wiel and Joris Mathijsen. Their anger hit boiling point when Webb made arguably only his second mistake.

“I gave a goal kick instead of a corner [to Holland]. It came from a free-kick when I was stood next to the wall, hoping my presence would stop them encroaching. From my position it looked like the ball flew straight past, but it should have been a corner. People pointed out that the goal was scored shortly after – but it was another minute before the goal, and the Dutch regained possession. So how far do you go back?’’

Webb blew up shortly afterwards. So did the Dutch. “They were devastated, disappointed, and in some cases angry. Coming off the pitch, I felt despondent about the number of cards. I sat slumped in the corner of our room, emotionally and physically drained until Darren came over to show me his phone. There was message after message of support.

“I’ve had messages from players, ex-players, chairmen of clubs, and from people within refereeing. A good proportion of Premier League managers have been in touch to say what a difficult game it had been to referee.

“We’ve also had letters of support from a lot of British people, and from all round the world – quite a few from Germany, and even some from Holland, which has been pleasing. The Fifa president [Sepp Blatter] was very supportive.’’ So were his family back in Rotherham.

“The kids put banners up in the windows, saying 'congratulations’ and 'welcome home Daddy’. I’m the same as anyone else who’s been away. It’s like a soldier serving in Afghanistan – it’s always nice to come home. While I was away, I heard my wife said I can’t even control the kids at home. Let’s put it this way, she controls them better than me!’’

And what of the future? Webb returns to action on Sept 11. He will referee Euro 2012 but what about back-to-back World Cup finals? “It’s extremely unlikely. The opening game would be realistic, but not the final. There’s no cast-iron guarantee that we’ll even be there. There’s some good young referees getting through.’’

Webb will continue his ambassadorial work for 2018. “We watched South Africa against France in a shopping mall in Pretoria and when South Africa scored the cleaners were running up and down waving mops in the air. In England we have even more of a passion for football.

"We shared the nation’s disappointment over what happened with the national team in South Africa. But there was a funny moment when we walked out at Soccer City for the final — we saw an England flag with the words: 'Can’t Play, Can Ref’.’’